Use This Chart to Determine How to Invest at Any Age

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By Andrew Snyder

It’s the world’s most valuable asset. We all own it. Some have more than others. And eventually… it will kill us all.

Without time, we’re nothing.

It’s the most powerful commodity on the planet… and yet, it’s the most wasted.

What’s crazy, though, is that few investors ever think about adjusting their investment strategies based on time. Oh sure, we’ll move to safer assets as we near retirement… if we can afford to.

What if you don’t have “long term”?

We hear it all the time. “I’m 55 years old and have never been able to invest. Now I can. Help.”

Traditional advice would say that the poor fellow is out of luck. He’d better enjoy his job… because he’ll be working at it until the day he dies.

We beg to differ.

We say, what’s he got to lose?
The Facts
Here are some cold, hard and sobering facts that show time is an ally.

If a person invests $3,000 in the stock market each year for 40 years and achieves a 6% annual return (underperforming most asset classes), he’ll wind up with $492,143.

That same investor who invests for only 30 years would need to achieve a 9.5% annual return. That’s a required return more than 50% higher than the 40-year investor’s return.

Cut the time down to 25 years, and the investor needs to earn about 12.5% per year, which is now exceeding the return on all but the strongest asset classes.

And if the investor has only 20 years in the market, he’ll need to earn 17.5% per year, a very difficult feat without help.

Time, clearly, is a vital factor.

Ah, if we only knew then what we know now. If only wisdom wasn’t a trait limited to the aged and experienced, the world would be a richer place.

Few folks had the funds – or more important, the wits – to invest appropriately in their younger days.

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Getting It Done
I won’t sugarcoat it. Getting rich in your later years is tough.

But so was landing on the moon.

Clearly, investors in catch-up mode must use different tactics and strategies. With time no longer an ally, they can’t rely on passive strategies… slow-growth mutual funds, ETFs, etc.

Blasting the market is the only option.

That’s where this chart comes in…

It’s a chart that we show all Members of The Oxford Club (the publisher of Investment U). It’s part of our unique investment model.

Most investors have never seen things depicted this way. It flies in the face of traditional investment strategies… but that’s why it’s so important to understand.

The chart is simple. It plots various asset classes based on their risk and average time to payoff.

Easy.

Yet most folks playing catch-up are never introduced to the idea… especially if they call on a mainstream financial advisor.

The key to using the chart is to focus on the x-axis. The more time you have, the further down the axis you can journey.

Less time… stay to the left. Think short-term equity strategies… options… and focus on uncovering the fastest-moving sectors in the market.

I won’t lie. Getting rich gets tougher with each …read more

Source:: Investment You

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